Posts (page 2)

The Word for Today Bible

Show us your bible.
Submitted by Connie.

I just bought this one last Wednesday! So it's still brand-spankin' new. I will have to make a cover for it very soon so it stays that way.

My previous one was a King Jimmy that really belonged to my other half and it's kinda gotten well-worn. Both my kids have torn pages out of it (during their toddler days). I can't wait to start scribbling in the new one.

Ok, I know I'm silly but I get weepy when I read this. I can't believe Chuck's written commentary for a bible like this. I remember years ago beginning bible study while he was going through Jeremiah on Sunday nights and though we attended other churches in the subsequent years, I'd made a point of listening in on Sunday night services to keep up with the studies all the way through the rest of the bible on back to Jeremiah.

One of these days, Chuck's gonna get called Home and I'm going to be sad because I have to say g'bye to my spiritual grandpa. Yes, it's temporary but it will still be sad. Unless we go at the same time and then it won't be much of an issue at all ;)

I'm posting here, but NM will likely do the same on his blog soon (I'll ask him to tomorrow). They won two of the four games they played in this weekend's tournament.

Our boys played hard, and they played fairly. All week, NM prayed for the games and practice times (I'm so proud!). He did a great job and was the goal tender for at least the first half of each game if not longer. He volunteers for this job and in today's game, coach told him he's the most dependable for that position so that's why he got the job (I'm so proud!).

Today's game loss was tough on the boys. They played very well and they showed good sportsmanship, playing hard to the end.

Unfortunately, two of the goals that the other side made weren't done fairly. They were kicked out of NM's hands when he'd already pinned the ball down but the ref never saw that happen so they counted anyway. Yes, our boys would have won if they weren't counted.

Can you tell I'm proud of my boy? I can tell you I wouldn't want to be goalie knowing, going in, that cleats inches from my nose would be involved. He still wants to do it. In the Fall, we may consider upping the ante a bit and putting him in the more competitive part of the league. He loves the competition, it's what gets him going. The coach made a huge point of making sure he knew he did a great job in the game today which was nice because he knew NM was upset. Several of the parents told him the same thing, too.

Next Sunday, we have our post-season party, most likely at the pool. I'm going to be on the hunt for good martial arts classes for both boys to attend along with, hopefully, one of NM's team mates and his brothers. They're a great family. Yeah, I'm a little biased because they homeschool, too, and their mom plays WoW. Actually, she works there, too, but I'm not biased towards her because she's a GM. Not in the least. Really.

We got to see it Friday night. It was fun! The boys had a blast. J was literally sitting at the edge of his seat most of the time. When Stanley woke up flat for the first time, J said:

"He's flat! If a bulletin board fell on him you should see his bones!" Ew.

All the way home and the next morning, J was talking about it and singing about Flat Stanley.

NM was a bit worried at the beginning. He noticed that most of the kids there were, well, little. But as people were getting seated, he began to notice more and more those kids who were his age. That included the three brothers who sat to my right and began to play tag. The one closest to me turned to me and lightly poked my arm and said "Tag!"

He was mortified he tagged a stranger. He had to switch places after that :D

NM did enjoy it a lot, too, and that was good since it was his idea. He was concerned that it was a musical since he was bored out of his mind when his class went to see a production of Beauty and the Beast. But Flat Stanley is quite a bit different and very much up my kids' alley. Very funny!

Afterwards, we went outside and the kids played. They have this lights display on the ground that had the kids stomping around. Plus there's the hill of grass which had lots and lots of kids rolling down it. What a blast! Yes, they were tired but all smiles afterwards.

Speaking of funny, NM really loves Calvin and Hobbes lately. I got him another book and he's been pouring over it along with his little brother. I get a kick out of the look on his face as he's reading it.

IMG_6498
Originally uploaded by Phisch

Look at our pics. Edit: we did this last weekend, when soccer games were canceled due to recent rains.

The last few times we've hiked at the Greenbelt, we chose to exit at the Mopac frontage road and entered the trail from there (west side). We found that there was a trail entrance off 360, so that's where we went this time.

Good thing, too! This part of the trail was gorgeous. The weather was so perfect. It was in the 80s but there was a perfect breeze that made it just so nice in the shade and not awfully hot in the sun.

The trees are all green now, no real sign at all of the sparse grey of winter. We even found this very out of place poppy (made me wish I had a camera that let me pick the depth of field).

The boys had a great time and we could tell we were well overdue for a family outing!

For my boys. This post is by no means an endorsement of my own behavior. Mind that, will you?

I think it was in 4th grade when I had this classmate, Paolo, who was one of the class tom cats. By that I mean, he was a bully and kept everyone in line. I didn't like him much. He had tripped me once as I walked up the aisle in the middle of the classroom to work on a math problem on the board.

It was embarrassing enough to have to work on math in front of the class but to have tripped on the way there was just not fun. The teacher took care of it.

I told Mommy what happened and she was really sympathetic and then she told me something like that had happened to her.

She had this classmate in 3rd or 4th grade who would tease her mercilessly. In the morning, he'd stand in the doorway of the classroom, bar it with his body and keep her from getting inside.

She told me she finally got so tired of it that one day, she kicked him where it hurt the most. He never did it to her again.

Now, mind you, I think that she was telling me this so that, in a round about way she was explaining that it was ok to defend myself. I think so, anyway.

I was a little surprised when, after I was being teased by my brother (it went both ways, trust me), I used the same tactic Mommy did and she wasn't too happy about it at all. I think she made me darn his shirts with holes as punishment. I just remember being really mad while I was sewing, mostly mad that she was mad at me.

Mommy Family Trivia

Mommy was one of six children. If Mama had no miscarriages, there would have been nine.

Her oldest brother was a school principal (I think). He fell and injured part of his brain which put him out of work for a while but he ultimately died some months later. He was my favorite uncle and I remember that he used to pull coins out of my ear and cut all my boy cousins' hair.

The middle brother was a police officer. He was shot in the neck while he and his partner where chasing down a thief.

The youngest brother is still alive and has retired from work at the post office.

Her oldest sister was the head dietitian for the hospital where she lives but is now retired.

Her youngest sister, the one she's closest to, is still working but lives in Australia. I call her Nanay which is Tagalog for Mom. She's the closest thing to a grandma you have on my side of the family.

One day I'll learn how to properly embed these.

(grab a tissue first if you're a weepy person like me)

Go watch something that will inspire you.

Quick thoughts:

And I have something to complain about?
God be my strength though my weakness!
Help me to learn to be available for You, Lord.
Not pity, not bias, not stereotype but love, encouragement, joy.
"Nothing is impossible for God"
It's not about me.

Sometimes, I wonder why God puts up with me.

You know those moments stretches of days when you start out with the best of actions (prayer and study) but once that's over it's like chaos reigns? Or maybe that you're walking in a fog and just hoping to make it from one moment to the next? Yeah. My last few days.

Last week, at bible study we went around the table taking prayer requests as we always do. I gave up my usual ones---homeschool mostly---and asked for God to lead me in the direction He wants me to go in terms of where I should be serving at church. I wrote it down since we ran out of time to share verbally and that was fine with me. Verbally smacks of "leading the witness" and I'd rather it be 100% a God thing.

Well, golly gee. Tonight I go to church sans hubby who is ill. Someone approached me regarding a need that I absolutely have no talent for. Zip. So I'm going to be praying about it and asking for confirmation and also to make it possible for me to even do.

I am just so blessed to even have that happen to me.

Speaking of faith, my hubby is so happy they did Neil Diamond on American Idol finally (they're singing "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" or whatever it's called, hence the reference). Wow. They got us to watch AI again! The Beatles and Neil Diamond in one season? Look out your window, you might see pigs flying!

TimmyJohn's was nice enough to add me to his neighborhood and so I added him to mine. Good thing, too, else I would have missed out on some wonderful writing.

The Warrior, part 1
The Warrior, part 2

Our friends' youngest daughter, A, is very sick. The found out that she has colitis, gastritis and a urinary tract infection. She'd been complaining about tummy aches and they were finally able to get her to see a doctor. Now she's on very strong antibiotics for a few days, rest plus a restricted diet for a month. She's underweight and malnourished because of it, too, so no doubt the special diet is to help with that.

I got tickets for all four of us to see The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley this Friday. Yay! I love me a good musical*. I hope the boys will enjoy it, too. The little one will like the larger-than-life feel of a stage production, I think, and the older one will love reminiscing because they did a unit study on Flat Stanley in first grade.

The musical will be staged at the Long Center, one of the first performances for this new facility. Adjacent to it is a large field, grassy knolls and a park with lots of water fountains for the kiddos to run through. Just another reason to love Austin :)

I went to buy tickets at the window in person mainly so that I could do a recon to figure out where to park. I was surprised to find out that I saved $30, all told, for our four tickets. Can you believe it? I thought at most I'd save the $1 per ticket fee to print the tickets via online ordering.